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When I interviewed Marie she wanted to know if I wished to hear the BF version or the AF version of her life. (Before or after flax, that is). She talks of when flax found her. That was the year 2000 when she and Debbie Stone ventured off on a weaving course together in Pakiri. Marie thought it would be fun to make Christmas presents for her family. She admits to struggling initially, particularly with the mathematical side of working out patterns, but she was bitten by the bug. This interest turned into a passion, then, became an addiction which is now pretty close to an obsession. She draws the line at paranoia! “There has to be some balance to life!”
This gutsy, wise, positive woman has such a great attitude. She really lives every day. “If you don’t go, you’ll never know,” she says. She appreciates her family and surroundings and feels really blessed to wake up every morning living in paradise. Her love and pride in her kids (6 of them!) and grandchildren is evident.
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It is this same love and connectivity that Marie applies to her flax. She says, “It’s weaving people together.”
And “people” is the other thing that Marie does best. A trained teacher with a Bachelor of Education and an MA in Education, Marie spent 25 years working with “Special Needs’ children. A further counselling degree saw her working in Early Intervention in Mangere and then Whangarei where she was in charge of administration of Early Intervention for children from birth to 5 years old. Marie loved working one on one with families. She ran parenting courses and “Joy of Kids” courses. Marie later became a counsellor for all ages and a supervisor for other counsellors. She still keeps up-to-date with research on the infant brain. She thought she would be counselling well into her old age, but that was BF.
Marie enjoys the sharing and “brotherhood” of women at the weaving huis and wananga she has attended at Maraes around NZ. By way of giving something back to the people who have been inspirational to her,
she organised a 4 day weaving hui at the Mangawhai Surf Club earlier this year along with Debbie Stone and Lou Sutton. With support of KDC funding this was a huge success. Workshops included a talk on Piango grass from Kingi Raharaha and a trip to Marie’s own flax plantation at daughter Rochelle and Alex Tidyman’s place. Her Pa Harakeke (home of flax) is called Kahurangi which as well as meaning something precious, also means hawk in the sky. This is meaningful as it fits with Marie’s philosophy of a hawk’s view of the world, looking at the overall picture. Her plantation contains 30 of the total 65 heritage weaving flaxes.
Marie is in awe of flax with its many healing properties and the more she learns, the more she wants to know. She is excited by every aspect and every project and when you see her results you can understand why.
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